"You can't wait until an emergency happens to practice communications."

Bob Englund, vice president of the Sun City Amateur Radio Club, says the annual National Field Day on Saturday and Sunday is "a great opportunity for hams to get out and practice emergency operations.”

Several members of the club will set up antennas and radios Saturday at the back entrance of Pinckney Hall. Beginning at 2 p.m. they will make contact with other "ham" operators across the country. The field day is the closing event marking National Amateur Radio Week and Sun City's hams will be on the air.

"That’s the bottom line for me," said Englund. "I’ve been involved for many years. When we lived in Minnesota, we went out and set up operations on slag heaps from iron mining. It’s basically for emergency preparation and that’s it. You practice to be prepared."

George Crane, president, said not all members will attend but those who are in town will be working the air waves.

"We as a club will definitely be operating June 23, and plan on having at least three stations in operation on different frequencies," Crane said. The hams will start setting up around noon and once ready, operations will continue until the club members close up shop. Some ham groups will continue through the night and into Sunday, he said.

"The purpose of the field day is when we essentially do the true field day experience you go out to a field and have portable tower. We did that last year. This year we will be using conventional house power," said Crane. "We plan on using the antenna on the roof of Pinckney Hall and erecting two additional poles with temporary antennas to operate different frequencies. It’s also the experience in setting up temporary communications for possible emergency needs."

Riding the radio waves

The frequencies club members will probably operate will range from 40 meters at the lowest to 20 meters and maybe 10, 15 and 6 meters, Crane said. "It depends on our experience at the time. If contacts are coming through and atmospheric conditions are good then we can go far. If one band is dead — there aren’t any contacts — then you shift to another frequency. We have the capability of going on all those frequencies I mentioned. You never know until you get on the air and see what you can hear."

Arlene and Warren Hickey operated radios when they lived in Colorado Springs.

"In storms, we would go places where the water was rising and tell the Skywarn people how high the water was in different places," said Arlene, who is also the club secretary. Skywarn is a nationwide group of trained severe weather observers who report conditions to the National Weather Service.

"In our experience with field days. It depends on how open the bands are," she said. "Usually we make a lot of contacts. One of the reasons we want to do it here is to get more people interested in amateur radio."

MAKE CONTACT

The Sun City Amateur Radio Club will be on the air beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday at the back entrance of Pinckney Hall. Come listen to contacts around the country.

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